Fresh faces

Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like.

Email This Story

Send email to this addressEnter Your NameAdd a comment hereVerification

Jaclyn Richardson

What do you teach?

Choir

Why do you do what you do?

“It’s kind of cliche. When I was in middle school, actually, I loved my choir teacher. I loved how I felt when I walked in her class. I loved singing. I loved the break that it gave me in the day from the academics, as a seventh grader, you know, it’s funny saying that now. So I decided when I was 11 years old that I was going to be a choir director because I wanted to provide that for students who came into my room. I was a very motivated child.”

College/studies:

University of Indianapolis – studied music education for grades K through 12

What are your hobbies?

“Well, before I had kids, they are my hobby right now, but I love to read. I read everything I can get my hands on when I have time. I knit. I play piano. I watch Netflix, I don’t know if that’s a hobby anymore, but that’s like my down time. And Broadway musicals. That would probably be my biggest hobby. I love listening to theater. It’s my passion.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I’m almost 100% Dutch. My dad’s grandparents immigrated from Holland before they started having kids, right after they were married. My mom’s side is very (heavily) Dutch, so there’s like a very small percent of Swedish in me but I’m almost 100% of Dutchheritage, which I love. I’m very proud of that.”

What are you most excited about this school year?

“I’m so excited to work on the musical with Mr. Wright and Mrs. Roberts and the kids. I’m just excited for the new adventure. It’s a whole lot of possibilities. The kids are so talented and I’ve really loved the last two and a half weeks. It’s been so much fun. Obviously (with) learning, but I’m really just excited for all the new things that I haven’t gotten to do before at my previous job.”

Anything else?

“I’m just really excited to be at Southport. This was a very last minute change in my career. I was not looking (for this job), and it just kind of fell into my lap. I’ve just been so appreciative of how open and accepting the students have been. They have been amazing and the faculty has just been wonderful. I’m very happy to be here. I already feel very comfortable with my students.”

Chris Quinn

What do you teach?

Health and wellness education

Why do you do what you do?

“Well when I applied for the position, this was the position that was open. It was listed as a physical education position but they did some reshuffling in the PE and health department, so I came in as the new teacher here, so I have all the health and wellness classes.“

College/studies:

IUPUI – studied physical education with a minor in health education

What are your hobbies?

“I really enjoy playing golf. I play a lot of golf. I enjoy going to sporting events. I love Notre Dame. I’m a huge Notre Dame fan so I go to several Notre Dame football games every year. That’s kind of what I do in my free time.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I’m always positive. I’m a very positive person. Very rarely will you find me being negative or just having a very negative mindset. I’m just always trying to be positive.”

What are you most excited about this school year?

“It’s a new school for me. This is my 21st year teaching and the excitement is still there. I went to Roncalli High School so I’m very familiar with this area and I wanted to get back to this area. I’ve been teaching down in southern Indiana so this was a great opportunity for me and I’m just excited to be at SHS.”

Anything else?

“I will be assistant coaching girl’s basketball this Winter, so I’ll be helping Coach Morelock this winter with the basketball program.”

Paige Wyatt

What do you teach at SHS?

Regular and advanced English 11

Why do you do what you do?

“I actually went to high school here and I had a really good teacher here. Mr. Bowles was my 11th grade English teacher, and I loved him, and he made class really fun. Everyday when we came in, he kind of made it feel like we were just sitting down and listening to him tell stories, but he was teaching us, but we didn’t realize it. I think that’s the best kind of teaching. I saw him do that and that made me want to do the same thing.”

College/studies:

IU for a year, IUPUI for three years – studied English education

What are your hobbies?

“I write for fun. I’ve written three books. They’ve not been published, but I like to just do it for fun. I also play guitar, and I’ve played drums for a long time, but I stopped when I had my son. That’s really what I do in my free time after school.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I had heart surgery when I was eighteen. I had a cyst on my heart, and they didn’t know what it was so they just said, “We’re gonna go in there and take it out.” They removed it after I graduated from high school. It was scary. My parents were really scared. I wasn’t as scared as my parents were. It was hard for them (because) they were afraid that it was cancer or something, but luckily it was fine, it was nothing. They got rid of it. It was really big though, it was the size of my heart.”

What are you most excited about this new school year?

“I’m most excited about my students. I really love all of them so far. They’re really good kids. I think it’s gonna be a fun year watching them grow and get them ready for their senior year.”

Anything else?

“I’m really a nerdy person so I really like Pokémon, Marvel and Lord of The Rings, things like that. If anybody ever wants to talk about nerdy stuff, I’m the person to come to.”

Maggie Tidrow

What do you do?

Counselor for all grades, Cr through Hd

Why do you do what you do?

“I’ve always loved people, for the most part. There are definitely days where I’m like ‘God, I hate everyone,’ especially when I’m driving. I love people. I love helping people, and I know that with counseling, it’s not necessarily like helping, but I’m advocating for you guys, I’m there for you guys. And I think that’s a big part of it because sometimes you’re in a school and you don’t have someone you can go to, and I like to be that person. I’ve always been that for my friend groups, I was that in high school for my friends and just for other people. I was always someone that people could come to and feel comfortable talking to. Honestly, I love scheduling. I love planning. I like organizing, so it really fits my personality and who I am.”

College/studies:

Undergraduate studies in psychology at Cardinal Stritch for two years, transferred to Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois. Graduate studies at IUPUI with a master’s of education in school counseling

What are your hobbies?

“I played softball in college. Eventually I want to coach, but not this year, I want to be able to get my feet under me, for the most part. So I love softball, I played it in college, played it my whole life. Honestly, big hobby of mine, Netflix. I love Netflix. I love my dog, Mary. Everyone puts pictures in their office of their kids and I’m like ‘Well I don’t have kids, so my animals it is.’ So yeah, I hang out with my dog. I just got a second job at Old Navy because I’m obsessed with their clothes and I was told you get a 50% off discount if you work there so I’m like I am gonna get a job there. So I got the job and now I work at Old Navy. I like to travel. I like going to concerts. I’m a big concert person. I went to like six different concerts this summer.”

What is a fun fact about you?

“I’m left-handed. My animals names are really fun. My cat’s name is Jackie, and I named her after Jackie Kennedy because I couldn’t figure out what to name her and everyone’s like ‘Oh my God, she’s the most beautiful white cat ever, name her Jackie Kennedy.’ And then I got my dog and I was like ‘I don’t know what to name her.’ And my ex-boyfriend was like ‘Name her Marilyn, like Marilyn Monroe because she’s an enemy of Jackie Kennedy kind of.’ And I was like ‘Well I like the E sound, so I named her Mary.’ And my (other) cat is Johnny, but it’s for John Kennedy, so I call him JFKitty.”

What are you most excited about?

“Getting it under my belt, really because there’s just so much I don’t know. Each day, I am having to learn something different. I even told myself going into it ‘Don’t be too stressed out, Maggie, because you’re not going to know everything.’ So really just getting a feel of like what it is. And I interned here last year, but I was only here for like two days a week so I wasn’t actually getting the feel of it. Another thing I’m excited about is getting to know my kids because I’ve already had some really strong relationships blossom in the first couple weeks. Just getting it under my belt because the first year I heard is always the hardest. Some years will be harder than others, but like just not knowing things (is hard). I love working in high school, I love the environment.”

Anything else?

“Gifts wise, if you want to bring me gifts, I like pizza and chocolate.”

John McBurney

What do you teach?

Piano

Why do you do what you do?

“Well, piano is one of my specialties. I have a college degree in Piano, as well as Music Education.”

College/studies:

Geneva College – studied music education and piano performance

What are your hobbies?

“I enjoy reading. I do origami. I do rollerblading and figure skating.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I grew up living in three different countries. I was in Kansas when I was very young, and then I lived in Canada for quite a while, and I lived for a short time in Ireland also. I would go back to visit Ireland in a heartbeat.”

What are you most excited about this new school year?

“It’s very exciting to put together something new. There are various things that I’m adding to the program here.”

Miriam Mawi

What do you teach?

Biology

Why do you do what you do?

“My undergrad degree was in biology, and when I decided to go through the teaching, I got my Masters of Arts in teaching, so that’s a subject that I focus on because of my undergrad.”

College/studies:

Undergraduate studies in biology at East Carolina University. Graduate studies at University of Indianapolis with a Master of Arts in Teaching

What are your hobbies?

“To be honest I like to just read and sing. I haven’t been reading for a long time now but my favorite book is ‘The Gifted Hands.’”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I’m the first Chin teacher here.”

What are you most excited about this new school year?

“I am excited because it’s my first year teaching. I just want to get to know the students and have a great year. I’ve been having a great year so far.”

“It was 2012 to 2014. Miss Brouwer, who was the principal at the time, had asked me to (be a master teacher). So those first two years of evaluations under the TAP rubric, this was my job. I was on the hiring committee, there were four spots, and they wanted two to come from the building, and Miss Brower just asked me to apply. And I was very hesitant because I didn’t want to leave my kids, I was afraid to leave my students. But we had a lot of private talks about how I could have a bigger impact on student achievement by working with teachers, so I said yes. Those first two years, everything was new to everybody, and that was just learning what the job was, what it wasn’t. With anything new, it was kind of trial and error. I know that things have changed a lot and teachers have a better understanding of what the rubric is but the focus is on students and student achievement and instruction.”

College/studies:

Undergraduate studies at Hanover College in business administration. Graduate studies at University of Indianapolis with a Master of Arts in Teaching and teaching license

What are your hobbies?

“I’m an avid reader. I love trivia. I used to coach the White River Academic Team here, so I know a lot of useless information. When I was growing up, my father thought that someday we would magically be in this competition with other families, like playing Trivial Pursuit. We spent a lot of time with his friends, at each other’s houses, and so Trivial Pursuit was very popular when I was younger. So at all times he kept these cards in the glovebox of his car, so if we’re in the car we’re studying useless trivia. If we were flying somewhere on a plane, the cards came with us. My kids like trivia, we love games and we do a lot of that at home. I spend the bulk of my time, though, carting my kids to places.”

Fun fact?

“I moved to South Carolina and my first year there I won South Carolina Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year. No one was more surprised than me because I was brand new. I didn’t even work the whole school year there. They had a teacher leave like sometime during the first nine weeks and I took their place. Being in this position (in 2014), you get to go to all the teacher’s classrooms and see a lot of really, really good things. So I just basically stole all of the things I saw that were awesome and used them. It made me a better teacher.”

What are you most excited about?

“On a personal note, I’m excited to get out of the house. I thought about going back to a teaching position when we moved back (to Indiana), but I just could not get it out of my head that I could be anywhere else besides SHS because I had worked here for a decade so this was my place. This is where I was comfortable. So when Mrs. Boone texted me and said ‘We have an opening, would you consider applying?’ I was like ‘Okay…,’ and so I did. But I’m excited to get back into the world of education and try to have a positive impact with teachers and students.”

Anything else?

“I’m pretty laid-back. I’m pretty approachable. I have bungee jumped off of the highest jump in the world (in Switzerland). That was in college, I was so stupid, so it made sense to do things like that back then. I would never do that now. I didn’t really want to do it then but everyone in our group did it and I was like, ‘Well I’m not staying on the ground by myself.’ It might not be the highest jump anymore but I jumped off of one of the Alps. It was super scary, and actually, I didn’t jump, I was pushed because I was trying to back out and they were like ‘No.’”

Lauren Baker

What do you teach?

FACS, only Nutrition and Wellness right now

Why do you do what you do?

“I originally was a music teacher when I graduated back in 2007, but I was not happy in that area so I went back and added Family and Consumer Science to my license because I enjoyed that curriculum a lot better.”

College/studies:

Georgia Southern University – studied vocal music education

What are your hobbies?

“I like going to the lake and shopping. I like going out to eat, obviously, and trying different foods. Tamales are my favorite. They’re so good.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I’m originally from South Georgia, so I’m not from Indiana originally. I moved up here back in 2012.”

What are you most excited about this new school year?

“Well, this is my first year at Southport so I’m excited to get to know the students and the staff and to be a part of Southport.”

Sara Neville

What do you teach?

Adult roles and responsibilities, child development and interpersonal relationships

Why do you do what you do?

“My mom is a FACS teacher, so I kind of followed in her footsteps and I’ve been around the FACS department ever since I can remember, so I just kind of grew up with a lot of the stuff.”

College/studies:

Purdue University – studied family and consumer science education

What are your hobbies?

“I love to travel. I like to read and watch Netflix. That’s about it. (I like to watch) ‘Heartland.’ I’m watching ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ right now and that kind of stuff.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“I was actually born in South Carolina. We came here when I was about 3.”

What are you most excited about this new school year?

“I’m actually excited about getting my new student club up and going it’s called FCCLA. It’s a brand new club here, so I’m excited to bring it here. Family is the central focus of it. We also talk about careers and preparing for the future and a lot of community involvement and community service. We will eventually have competitions, too, towards spring time. We are going to try and do a lot in the community”

Anything else?

I work part-time at Vera Bradley. I’m a sales associate. I’ve worked there for about two years now.”

Tammy Tellas

What do you teach?

H Algebra I, Algebra I, Algebra I enrichment (double-block)

Why do you do what you do?

“I really like math a lot. I was really good at it in high school, and in college. And then I decided to become a teacher and I have an elementary license. And then I decided to get a math endorsement just to have some job security in case of some choices. Then when I did my student teaching, I didn’t really enjoy elementary, it was okay. And then I student taught with Mary Hayes at the middle school and I really liked that. After I student taught, I worked at IPS for a year and then I got pregnant, and had a baby, Jacob. I was off with him for a year, and then I got hired at SMS, and I was there for 19 years. (This year) I decided I wanted to try something new, so when this job became available I went for it.”

College/studies:

Started at Indiana University studying nursing then switched to education. Finished at IUPUI with a Bachelor in Elementary Education and Endorsement in Mathematics

What are your hobbies?

“I like to be with my family. I have a husband, Tim, and my boys, Jacob and Matthew. I’ve always been chasing the boys because they’ve always been playing ball, lacrosse, hockey, soccer. So before they could drive, (I was always) taking them to practice, going to watch ball games. And now that they’ve both graduated and off they go, we have decided we need to find some hobbies. I like to do Zumba, there’s a church over by my house where I do Zumba, kind of like grandma-Zumba though. I have two dogs, they’re who I love. They’re pretty much who I take care of now. We like to go out to dinner.”

What is a fun fact?

“The hairless dog thing. And two years ago I bought a convertible. I don’t have car seats anymore, the boys are too young to have kids, so it’s kind of my in between car before I’m a grandma because when I’m a grandma I’m gonna want car seats again. You can’t have little kids in the backseat of a convertible. So, you’ll often see me, because I live in Southport, you’ll often see me and my two hairless dogs with their little bodies sticking out of the car in the convertible in the summertime. I have people ask me ‘Is there something wrong with your dog?’ and I’m like ‘No, he’s like that.’”

What are you most excited about?

“This is brand new for me so I’m excited to try new things with my students. I wrote a grant proposal and it just got funded so I’m excited about having some flexible seating in here. I’ve never done that before. I’ve decided to just go all the way and try new stuff. I’m just excited about the newness, I haven’t had any newness for about 19 years. I can use my brain a little bit more, not that I wasn’t using my brain (at SMS), but I was a little stagnant because I had done it for so long. But I’m just excited about the whole newness thing, and I love getting out early. Now getting up early isn’t fun, but getting out is, I like that.”

Andrew Frey

What do you teach?

Business education – Principles of marketing, college and career planning

Why do you do what you do?

“I started coaching, actually, before I got into teaching, and that kind of made me want to go into teaching to help grow students at a bigger level than twenty at a time through coaching.”

College/studies:

Undergraduate studies at University of Indianapolis with a bachelor’s in business administration and finance, working on a master’s in teaching

What are your hobbies?

“I like to coach, so I coach wrestling. I wrestled in college and high school, so I’d say a hobby would be wrestling. Aside from that I like to hike, travel, hunting and fishing.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

“I like to hunt and fish, hike. I have my own moving business on the side.

What are you most excited about this new school year?

(I am) most excited (to) just kind of starting my career. I’m excited for that and learning, growing as an educator.”

Melissa Stanley

What do you teach?

ENL levels 2 and 3

Why do you do what you do?

“I started working with ENL students when I was in high school. I had a friend who had just come from Afghanistan and I started volunteering in (what was) called ESL, it’s the same thing as ENL, in that class. And I just got experience that way and didn’t teach, didn’t study education when I went to college, but I still worked with that population of people, and then I decided I wanted to work with them through teaching. So I went back, got my Masters. It’s what I do now.”

College/studies?

Undergraduate studies in agroecology and justice studies at Prescott College. Graduate studies at Plymouth State University with a master’s in teaching English as a second language

What is a fun fact about you?

“My husband and I traveled around for a year in a van a couple years ago. So we sold our house, took a year off and traveled, with two dogs. It was pretty crowded. We went everywhere. We went throughout Canada and the U.S. and down to Mexico, and then we parked and left the dogs with family, and went to Thailand and China.”

What are your hobbies?

“I like hiking a lot, biking, and I really enjoy pottery, like ceramics.”

What are you most excited about?_

“I’m excited to be in a school that seems like it functions really well. Students really want to learn, they’re respectful. The staff is incredibly helpful and competent. The administration is great to work with, so I’m just excited to be in this school.”

Mookie Maves

What do you teach?

Algebra I and Algebra II

Why do you do what you do?

“I’ve had many different types of careers or jobs, and I think I’ve found out that in order to really enjoy what you’re doing, you have to be making a difference for somebody else. And being a teacher is the best way to do that. I chose math because in my experience in the classroom, that’s where I get the most gratification, when (I) see that light bulb go off when a kid understands math. Because they come in (and) you know they don’t know that subject or else they wouldn’t be in it, so it’s your job to teach them and when you see that click for them, it’s a very gratifying experience.”

College/studies:

Purdue University – studied social studies, switched to history, then stuck with organizational leadership

What are your hobbies?

“My hobbies are sports. That’s the biggest thing. I help out coaching the football team, so right now it’s football, but really any sport. I’m a huge Purdue fan. I used to work at Purdue in the athletic department, so I follow Purdue and all of their sports.”

What is an interesting fact about you?

“My hidden talent is if you say a word I can spell it backwards in my head and I can say it to you backwards.”

What are you most excited about this school year?

“I’ve always taught at smaller schools, so I think I’m excited to see what types of activities kids are exposed to at a bigger school, like different clubs or groups that they could be a part of that we didn’t have at smaller schools. I’m excited to see how that works, to see how different types of kids can get involved in stuff other than sports. We didn’t really have many extracurriculars at a small school, so I’m excited to see what’s available for those kids.